Because You're My Friend
by Crystal Blue Montana
Summary: When Daigo and Mikoto manage to get to spend some alone time together, Yayoi is heartbroken. A sympathetic ear comes from one of the last people Yayoi ever expected to confide in.


**Because You're My Friend**

**I know; it's been a while since I last wrote anything. Yes, my Shinkenger next-gen story is still hanging, and I do eventually hope to add at least another chapter to it. My muse was in the middle of an extended hiatus, but the recent conclusion of _Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger_ got it pretty fired up to put this piece out.**

**Disagree with me if you like, but I thought that the Daigo and Amy 11th-hour pairing was total male bovine excrement with almost no buildup (one episode showing Amy's jealous snit over Yayoi's crush on Daigo does not buildup make) and an insult to the viewers. As far as I'm concerned, _Daigo and Amy had no chemistry_. If you think they did and you like them together, that's fine; just don't go trying to force me to like it just because it's canon. I don't care if it _is_ canon; I don't think it should've been. There were other pairings that showed way more promise and buildup (Daigo/Yayoi, Amy/Utsusemimaru, Daigo/Mikoto, Amy/Souji, Nobuharu/Candelira, and Souji/Rin), but I think the writers were scared to show anything outside of a Red/Pink ship, so they clumsily foisted Daigo and Amy on us. Now, I have nothing against Red/Pink in general (I do ship Takeru/Mako, after all), but it's got to make sense, and Daigo and Amy just don't, in my opinion; so much so, that I refuse to give them the standard "he/she" or "HexShe" ship treatment.**

**Until now, I hadn't yet written any fic with regards to _Kyoryuger_, because the stories didn't quite come to me. I tried to write one early on about Nobuharu (who was my favorite character over the whole series) trying to hide being a Kyoryuger from Yuko, but it rapidly went nowhere. Somehow, in trying to come up with ideas for a shippy Daigo/Mikoto or Daigo/Yayoi fic, I seized upon the idea of this friendship fic. No romance between the two characters involved here, but my preferred ships are big factors in the story.**

**_Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger_, and all characters and references therein, is the property of Toei Co. Limited and TV-Asahi. No infringement is intended or implied.**

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Yayoi sighed dejectedly. Despite her best efforts to keep them apart, Daigo and Mikoto had been able to find some time to spend together, thanks to Mikoto's manager deciding at the last second to postpone her world tour to allow one of the touring musicians some time off to tend to a sick relative. Yayoi watched as Daigo and Mikoto left the Spirit Base together, Mikoto with her arms clenched tightly around Daigo and his free arm wrapped around Mikoto's waist as he fired his Gaburivolver at the warp panel that took them outside. Yayoi poked at the keys on her laptop, pulling up various pictures of Daigo that she had saved on her hard drive. With each picture that she pulled up, her vision began to blur with the tears that were building in her eyes. "_Daigo-san_," she whispered. "Why her? Why not me?"

Yayoi wished that there was someone that she could talk to about how she was feeling, but she felt like there was no one. Though she was close to her grandfather, they hadn't discussed matters of the heart, and she wasn't even sure that he would even know much about the subject, though it was obvious that there had been some knowledge of it in the family line, because she probably wouldn't exist if there hadn't been. As for her fellow Kyoryugers, she wasn't sure she could broach the subject with any of them, even if they had accepted her wholeheartedly as one of them; though they otherwise got along famously, Yayoi suspected that, despite not coming right out and saying so, Amy herself had a thing for "King," as everyone else called him, and Yayoi was not about to compare notes on her crush with one of her perceived rivals. As for the others:

She still felt like she hadn't quite connected with Souji enough to discuss something so intimate. Besides, he seemed almost as clueless as Daigo when it came to girls, because, in spite of all the signs, he had no idea that his kendo club manager carried a torch for him.

She felt that Nobuharu, given his bad luck with the opposite sex, was just the wrong person to talk with about relationships. Full stop.

Utsusemimaru was definitely the wrong person to ask. Yayoi wasn't sure how he would even react if she brought up the subject with him. He was already skittish enough around women as it was; Amy seemed to be the only one that he felt remotely comfortable with. Even so, he seemed nervous about being "too close" to Amy, so that pretty much tore it.

Tessai had been a monk, so he was _definitely_ right out. Though Ramirez was very much the affable sort, he seemed like he knew as much about women as Tessai did. Torin, despite having allied with the human race and showing much love for them as a whole, just didn't seem like he knew much about interpersonal human relations, even after all his millennia on Earth.

As for Ian, Yayoi decided that talking with him about her heartache was out of the question, because of his playboy ways. Yayoi was counting off more reasons why Ian would be unsuitable to talk to about her heartache when a hand holding a lavender gardenia suddenly appeared in front of her face. She started violently, whirled in her seat to face her accoster, and clapped her laptop shut when she saw who it was. "_Ian-san!_ Don't sneak up on me like that!" she cried.

Ian held his free hand up defensively, still holding out the flower he had extended to Yayoi. "Sorry, _Yayoi-chan_. I really didn't mean to scare you." He gently offered the flower to Yayoi once more. "Want to talk about it?"

"What do you mean?" Yayoi scowled at Ian, hugging her laptop to herself.

Ian sat down next to Yayoi. "Like King says, we're a team. And I think that part of being a team is being friends, because if you can't get along, you really can't be an effective team. Friends are there for each other when they're happy or sad. Now, I can tell that you're not happy about something, so I hope we can talk about it."

Yayoi's frown softened slightly. "Why?"

"As your friend, I want to know what's bothering you. I hate to see you so sad."

At that moment, Yayoi thought she saw something she'd never seen before, namely sadness in Ian's eyes. Her voice less sharp than before, she asked, "Really?"

"Really." Ian paused for a moment. "You're upset that King's gone out with _Meeko-chan_, aren't you?" Ian hitting the bull's-eye at the source of Yayoi's sadness touched off a nerve, and she bit her lip in an unsuccessful try to stop the tears from spilling from her eyes. _Oh shit. I've just made things worse._ "Oh, crap, _Yayoi-chan_, I didn't mean to– "

Yayoi wrenched her head to look away from Ian. "Just go," she spat.

Ian felt a strange feeling in his chest. Yayoi's words had stung him hard, and he could swear that he felt tears building in his own eyes. This was different from all the times in the past when the girl of the moment would slap him and/or tell him that she never wanted to see him again; even though Ian had indeed tried to flirt with Yayoi at their first meeting, he had since developed a deep respect for her intelligence and resourcefulness and no longer saw her as a potential conquest. In fact, Ian found himself feeling very protective of Yayoi, and seeing her in such distress didn't just make him sad; it broke his heart. He set the gardenia down on the table and took a deep breath. "_Yayoi-chan_, I'm sorry if I upset you. I didn't mean to. It hurts me to see you this sad, and I just want you to be happy. _Yayoi-chan._ Look at me, please." When Yayoi turned slowly to look at him, he said softly, "I'm sorry."

Yayoi studied Ian's face for any sign of insincerity and found none. Then again, she had never thought herself to be a good judge of character; living with Doctor Ulshade, constantly conducting research on how to revive Plezuon and developing more Zyudenchi, gave her no time for social interaction, so how could she know if Ian was truly concerned, or if this was some new way he was trying to flirt with her? Still, this was the closest thing that she'd ever had to a real confidante, and the sudden realization of this hit her so hard that the tears began to flow unchecked. "_Ian-san_," she blubbered, still hugging her laptop.

Ian took a clean handkerchief from his jacket's inside pocket and carefully removed Yayoi's glasses so he could gently pat at the tears on Yayoi's face. "Shh. Go ahead and tell me. I promise that I won't tell anyone else."

Yayoi took a deep breath but barely got a few words out before she began to cry in earnest, her head swimming with all sorts of thoughts. She was still dejected that Daigo was out with Mikoto, and though she felt some sense of relief that Ian had offered to be the friendly ear that she felt like she needed at the moment, the thought of opening up to him about her thoughts was utterly terrifying. Suddenly, Yayoi felt her body being pulled against something warm and smooth. Realizing that Ian had wrapped his arms around her in a hug, she leaned into him, her tears rolling off her face and briskly down the front of Ian's leather jacket.

Ian cradled Yayoi in his arms, rubbing her back gently. Rocking back and forth to try to comfort her, Ian's own thoughts were a blur. _Poor _Yayoi-chan, he thought_. Her heart must be completely broken, seeing King go out on that date with Meeko. At the same time, I can't really be mad at King, because Meeko is very special to him. Does he even know that _Yayoi-chan _likes him? I'd encourage her to tell him how she feels, but who am I to break up the good thing that King and Meeko have?_

"_Ian-san_," Yayoi finally was able to say, "do you think that I should keep trying to win over Daigo-san?"

_Shit._ Ian sighed. "Look, I know this isn't what you want to hear, but perhaps you should give up on King. I mean, he and Meeko have known each other for longer than he's known any of us, and we can all see that they're into each other. I can't consciously encourage breaking a pair like that up."

Yayoi's heart felt like it had just broken into a million pieces. "I can't believe that you, of all people, would say something like that!" she cried as she muscled herself out of Ian's arms. She clutched her laptop even more tightly to herself, as if it could keep all the little pieces of her heart from pouring out of her chest and onto the floor.

Ian smiled sadly. "I know what you're thinking; here's Mr. Playboy, only good for flirting with the ladies and knowing nothing about love. Well, yeah, I may like to play the field, but I have my limits. If I find out that a girl that I like is into someone else, I back off. No couple should be torn apart by the selfish actions of a third party. Now, I'm not saying that _you're_ selfish, but look at it like this; what if you and Meeko switched places? What if you're the one with King, and she's the one who wants to come between you two? How would you feel about that?"

"I guess…" Yayoi sniffled. "I guess I wouldn't be too happy about that." She looked up at Ian. "But I can't imagine liking anyone else but Daigo-san."

"Well, you're young, and you have many years ahead of you." Ian smiled gently. "You may meet someone else who's better than King. I know it doesn't feel like you will, but it could happen. None of us can predict what will happen with that. I can, however, predict that you will agree with what I'm going to say next."

"Oh? And what is that?"

"I think you need to get out and come have a snack with me. No strings; just a couple of friends going out. It'll be my treat, unless you're not comfortable with that."

Yayoi frowned. "Don't you have a date?"

Ian shook his head. "Not today. Even if I did have a date, I'd break it, because I think you need a friend more than I need to be going out with just another one of the girls in my black book. So what do you say?"

"_Ian-san_, you're terrible. Remind me to never go on a date with you," teased Yayoi, feeling much better. "Okay, I'll go with you to get a snack, but I'll pay my own way."

"That's fine. I just don't want you to be sad and alone right now." He picked up the gardenia from the table and presented it once more to Yayoi, who smiled shyly as she accepted it. Ian stood up and gestured to the warp panel. "After you," he said.

Yayoi grinned. "Thank you." She stepped onto the warp panel, and Ian joined her.

At that moment, Utsusemimaru entered. Seeing Ian and Yayoi standing so closely together, his eyes burned with protective fury. He rushed forward. "_Ian-dono!_ How dare you try to take advantage of– "

"_Utchi_," interrupted Ian. "It's okay. This isn't what it looks like."

"Eh? I do not understand. From all appearances, it looks like you are taking _Yayoi-chan_ out on a date!"

"Date? This isn't a date," said Yayoi. "Can't a girl go out with her friend to spend some time?"

Utsusemimaru looked confused as Ian and Yayoi both bade him goodbye and fired their Gaburivolvers at the warp panel, teleporting outside. "Not a date?" He scratched his head. "This is highly irregular. I should probably ask _Amy-dono_ if what they are doing is okay." Thinking more about Yayoi's last words to him before leaving the Spirit Base, however, he began to wonder if perhaps Amy would want to go out with him and, as Yayoi put it, "spend some time."

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**I had originally envisioned a story with only Ian and Yayoi as the actual parties, but I thought that adding Utsusemimaru at the end would add a light comic touch, since he's still not used to the idea of men and women being just friends. Such a chivalrous one, that _Utchi_…**

**Hope you liked it! Thanks for reading!**


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